Augmented reality refers to a technology platform that merges the physical and virtual worlds by augmenting real-world physical objects with virtual objects. For example, a real-world physical newspaper may be out of date the moment it is printed, but an augmented reality system may be used to recognize an article in the newspaper and to provide up-to-date virtual content related to the article. While the newspaper generally represents a static text and image-based communication medium, the virtual content need not be limited to the same medium. Indeed, in some augmented reality scenarios, the newspaper article may be augmented with audio and/or video-based content that provides the user with more meaningful information.
Some augmented reality systems operate on mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets. In such systems, the mobile device may display its camera feed, e.g., on a touchscreen display of the device, augmented by virtual objects that are superimposed in the camera feed. In the newspaper example above, a user may point the mobile device camera at the article in the newspaper, and the mobile device may show the camera feed (i.e., the current view of the camera, which includes the article) augmented with a video or other virtual content, e.g., in place of a static image in the article. This creates the illusion of additional or different objects than are actually present in reality.